Thursday, November 05, 2015

As part of the ongoing efforts to provide this blog community, and the Brainstorm members, with added value, I am hosting an impromptu Brainstorm event featuring Derek Smart, the veteran game developer and Star Citizen skeptic.

We will be discussing what caused him to go from project backer to public critic, his own development history, including the notorious Battlecruiser 3000 AD, and his latest game, Line of Defense Tactics, on Saturday, November 7th, at 7 PM EST. I'll also be asking him about some of the controversial statements he has recently made concerning Chris Robert's record-setting development project. You can register for the event here.

In addition to being entertaining and informative, this should also provide those interested in the upcoming DevGame course with some idea of what the guest speaker aspects of the course will entail, as well as the nature of the Q&A sessions.

34 Comments:

This is awesome. Was just reading Derek's blog post that you tweeted link to yesterday. Fascinating story with personal intrigue, crowd funding financial shenanigans, money laundering. Could be a Hollywood script.

Smart needs to be asked some hard hitting questions - both about his past, the current heavily delayed Line of Defense which has very little to show for itself with over 4 years development and some very heavy hitting questions about his vocal outbursts over Star Citizen including the fact that he has still done nothing except throw accusations and slanderous comments about.

I'd like to see actual 'evidence' instead of blog after blog of inane ramblings. Once evidence is shown then we can move forwards with actions until then it is all bluster and self promotion for Smart.

I'd like to see actual 'evidence' instead of blog after blog of inane ramblings.

I read Derek's article out of nostalgia for the old alt.games.bc3000ad days, so I haven't researched it further than that. But I noticed his article was full of links on almost every single claim. Unless those go to funny cat pictures, I'd say he tried to provide what evidence there is. Short of playing private eye and sneaking into their HQ to get a recording of someone talking about transferring cash to Zurich, I'm not sure what more "evidence" people expect. He's made his predictions; if he's wrong, he'll be held to them.

I haven't put a penny into Star Citizen and don't plan to, unless by some miracle they eventually release a game and it's good.

BUT... the epic story of SC has provided me with more entertainment than some games I've actually paid money for (I'm looking at you, DayZ).

I mean... Gizmondo! Who saw that coming? This shit's more entertaining than Argo and the collected works of Ed Wood.

The only thing that could top the Gizmondo revelation would be if we were to find out that Star Citizen is actually a secret training programme to find space pilots as per The Last Starfighter, and all the "concept" ships are ancient alien vessels waiting to be crewed against an approaching invasion fleet.

And then hordes of neckbeards go whooshing into the void to battle against evil alien octopi or something, a whole space-fighter armada manned by fedora-wearing lookalikes of the fat pilot from Star Wars.

The Oort Cloud becomes the site of a huge battle as our doughy defenders rain plasma fire and antimatter bombs on the Pussies - as the tough-talking hero fighter jocks come to call our octopus opponents - while nimbly dodging laser bolts and tentacle-missiles fired out of their massive coral reef-like invasion ships.

And after the aliens have been blasted into radioactive dust, the people of Earth come together to make Chris Roberts the Emperor of Mankind by universal acclaim. He ascends the podium of the UN General Assembly, his flightsuit still scored with laserburns, his steely eyes flashing with triumph and loss - because he's seen shit, man! - and says:

"We are all Star Citizens now."

Then a little girl starts clapping and the adults slowly join in until there's a crescendo of applause and each of the surviving SC backers is presented with a medal, a solid gold brick, a lifetime's supply of free Doritos, and an animatronic pleasurebot waifu called Misaki.

I'd like to see actual 'evidence' instead of blog after blog of inane ramblings.

That's a ridiculously amateurish perspective. What "evidence" would you suggest could be provided for a project that eventually fails before it actually does so? People leaving the company? Deadlines being missed? A handwritten note from the project lead that says "ha ha ha, this is all a cunning scam!"

#9: thats the thing that bugs me, there is no evidence. All the links to "proof" are links to smarts previous blogs, or to statements he made in the past. Most of these statements had to sides (CIG will do this... or cig will do that). What happens is that when CIG does 'this' instead of 'that' Derek only links his "this" statement and claims 'i called it!".

Another issue is that his blogs, probably after the check with "legal", do not contain hard accusations. He makes sure he clouds the argument by using "in my opinion" or "allegedly" or "my source stated".

The last issue is that a lot of his proof-links turn out to be small insignificant blogs or 3 page wordpress sites that seem to be set up with information gained from dereks own blogs. If someone else repeats your words it doesn't make them more true.

And don't get me started on the mafia thing.. he said himself it was a red herring and if you look at the timeline of the companies there is only a very very loose connection between the people involved.

No.. I hoped that Derek's last blog opened the doors for accountability and forced CIG to give openness on the concerns that a lot of people have on this project. But alas he didn't.. Leaving aside all the LoD drama (at least he knows the taste of failure, i assume thats what triggered him on SC) Derek should start giving hard proof.. put up or shut up. The current dialogue is causing CIG to close down and Derek's antics on SomethingAwfull are causing a shift of this argument to the "loony bin" corner.

#19: Well.. if you read all his blogs and his twitter his predictions are just a (very) small part of his statements. According to Derek its a scam, a ponzi scheme and people are lying. The tech isn't there, there is no game being built , money is being used for personal goals/enrichment and company property is handled in a shady manner. Ow.. and there is a maffia connection.

Read carefully though and its all 'allegedly' and 'in my opinion'.. Not "This is a fact, they are doing something criminal".

Its not his predictions that bother me.. its the lack of substance in his other arguments. And his obviously carefull wording to prevent anything said by him to be interpreted as "a hard fact stated by derek smart".

There was a valid argument.. and concern, but it has been lost in childish antics and incoherent ramblings that really don't belong in a discussion between grown-ups.

Read carefully though and its all 'allegedly' and 'in my opinion'.. Not "This is a fact, they are doing something criminal".

Yes, that is the legally responsible way to make accusations in public. That is, in fact, the grown-up way to do it. Only an idiot or an amateur would do as you suggest, ESPECIALLY if he's got solid evidence.

I find it bizarre that you think someone being observably professional about the matter means that he should be taking LESS seriously.

It doesn't come across as being "observably professional" but as libelous. Yes, he is taking the time to prevent all statements from becoming hard facts but in the end it all reads like an article in TMZ magazine. For me his posts have an aura of slander/libel, but i'm probably tainted after reading his twitter feed for months.. and seeing his antics in SomethingAwfull. (on a note: i'm not american but dutch.. the stuff he posts on his blogs would be cause for a lawsuit and a conviction here if CR would take him to court and Derek wouldn't be able to proof his statements.. perhaps in the US/UK laws are different)

I know he states in his blogs "don't hold me to a higher standard".. but after seeing the stuff he posted in SA i'm inclined to demand this higher standard from him. And it's not just me, its all the "normal" people i know that follow this discussion from the sidelines that have left Dereks side after seeing his statements and behaviour. And please remember, i was mentally siding with Derek when this all started as he had some valid points. Its just that he lost me the past 2 months.

So perhaps a good question would be this: Does he think that his statements, behaviour and actions on fora like SomethingAwfull detract from the original argument and "endanger the cause".. Or does he think it helps?(just to compare: the past few weeks its been as if 4chan has demanded accountability from Obama by posting rude gifs and making fun of his family, doxing his voters and behaving like the online trolls they are)

Ah well.. as a non native speaker i may be using too many words to explain myself.. I guess a good recap would be "I'm afraid the toxicity in the debate from the side of DS, and his cherry picking of sources, statements and online links will cause this discussion to fade into the realm of obscurity, without getting the tough questions answered by CIG".

I think it was almost 20 years ago now that I first played an MS-DOS BattleCruiser, and despite the unfinished feel I was impressed by the immense scope of the kind of things you could do i.e. you could load a soldier in a tank, the tank in the shuttle and pilot the shuttle down to a planet and so on. Or put a mining drone in the shuttle and send that down etc.

I was kind of sad to see you brought he series more towards a FPS / combat game, not a generic space simulation so I stopped paying attention.

But I saw how you are a developer of exceptional capability, and of exceptional stubbornness, of the good kind, like struggling so long through this never giving up, and the bad kind, as in, you are not the easily going along agreeable type who easily attracts other developers in the project.

Ultimately what I have always wished for that you would open source some of its older versions, that could attract a lot of developers to the project, and maybe flesh out all these less combaty more space sim parts, making it really the ultimate space sim.

I would like to urge to consider this opportunity still. If you are giving away older versions for free anyway, it does not make sense not to do so.

Different people have different views of open source. My view is that it is the only way to ensure a software lives forever. That someone ports it to new operating systems, new everything. And nothing gets lost that is the great thing, even if it progresses slow, it never gets lost because if current maintainers quit others can pick it up. Closed source is usually better in the short run but the closed one has time on its side. It can wait forever. Who cares if it will only surpass the closed competitor in 25 years? I will, because the closed one will sooner or later be stopped, and the open one is never stopped.

Not sure if you're talking about me.. but if so you're kind of missing the point. I'm not a derek smart detractor, i'm just somebody who has the same worries as he voiced but doesn't agree with the route this message has taken.

After reading VD's SJW-AL book the past 2 hours (yeah, i'm a fast reader :P) i do understand that my responses might have come across as Anti-derk/Pro-SC.. or as an undercover Pro-CS shill. But as neither my identity is a hidden fact, nor the fact that my message has always been the same i hope that my response will be seen as 'honest/truthfull'.

I can go on and on about the things i find 'worrisome' in SC's development/communication and overall strategy, but this is not the place for that. Overall i think that besides technical hurdles their insight into actual gameplay mechanics is my biggest red flag.

Just as i don't agree with the redditors who claim DS is 'doxing' i don't agree with DS statements that someone wanted to 'swat' him. When in fact he links to a post of a kid who said that he 'could understand someone wanted to swat ds'. Both sides are creating their own truth's and are repeating false truths, knowing that repeated enough they become the truth. Both sides get caught on lies, but instead of admitting it and moving on they tell bigger lies or block communications with the parties that call them out.

In the end this has created 2 sides in an argument, where CIG isn't part of this argument. Its just DS and SA on one side and Reddit on the other.. in a big 'he said she said'. CIG has largely ignored this argument.. and by doing so has become 'the voice of reason' for many people. And we still don't have answers :)

"There was a valid argument.. and concern, but it has been lost in childish antics and incoherent ramblings that really don't belong in a discussion between grown-ups."

Bound to happen whether or not Derek Smart gets involved. That he comes off as the sane one here is amusing irony. I had people telling me I was a cynical jerk for daring to say "I'll believe it when I see it" regarding Star Citizen three years ago.

"CIG failing to deliver a product on time or to account for money spent is to be blamed on Derek for pointing this out? "

Sorry, language barrier i guess. With "close down" i tried to convey that CIG stopped communicating about the issue and is able to ignore it in their external communication. They can do this because the other side seems to be on a wild rampage intent to destroy everything in sight. With the claims becoming more and more extreme and the focus shifting from direct issues to wild stories people are starting to ignore it.

It's the old 'boy who cried wolf" issue.. I hope Derek regains the focus he had when this started.. but i'm afraid its already too late. The current situation is that everybody who voices his worries gets lost in the DS/WhiteKnight shouting matches.A good example is the dev who posted some valid points a few weeks ago. A large portion of the audience isn't listening to the arguments.. they've just entrenched themselves and are lobbing grenades from their bunkers at the other side.

Seems? Getting accounting for the large amount of kickstarter money collected and spent is not a rampage.

There is a very good reason they won't (even if the wanted to). It will hurt there position in the market too much.

They also they have no obligation to, until they say they can not complete the game full stop. (as per all the versions of TOS). This is also not dependent on a time frame, only the refunds are (depending on which TOS you are currently agreeing to)

Until that time, they have no responsibility to expose the accounting.

Post a Comment

Rules of the blogPlease do not comment as "Anonymous". Comments by "Anonymous" will be spammed.